So I'm going to tell you a story, and you tell me if it sounds made-up, because Kansas State is sticking to it and saying it's definitely not made up.

Jamar Samuels was suspended for the Wildcats' second tournament game because his old AAU coach, his father figure, sent him $200. Samuels didn't tell anybody, and Curtis Malone didn't tell anybody, so how on earth did K-State find out about the violation?

Some random person was just going through the trash at a Manhattan, Kan. grocery store and stumbled across a receipt for a wire transfer in Samuels's name. That right-thinking, upstanding citizen did what any of us would do when finding a receipt in the garbage: they ran straight to the Kansas State compliance office. At that point, what could K-State do but suspend Samuels?

"I promise you," coos athletic director John Currie, "I wish it would have stayed in the trash."

Let's do a thought experiment, a little lex parsimoniae. Is it likely that K-State's on the level here, that some random person salvaged a crumpled piece of paper from the wastebasket, noticed that it would implicate the hometown team's star player in the middle of the postseason, and immediately turned it in to the one place that would act on it? (And that one place, instead of saying this is no big deal, or pretending they never saw it, felt the crushing weight of obligation and unwillingly suspended Samuels?)